I think that's a separate argument from the one the OP is making, based on his selected quotes. I've read the article before, but I just re-read it to refresh m

I think that's a separate argument from the one the OP is making, based on his selected quotes. I've read the article before, but I just re-read it to refresh myself. The issue I take with it is that the story pitched to the reader is: 1) Life gets expensive and Wall st. produces tons of millionaires. 2) Smart guys go to Wall St. with dreams of making enough money to become leisurely professors. 3) Extra derivatives are created by smart guys which then destroy the world. This seems ridiculous on several levels. First, virtually no one goes into massive debt by getting a PhD in the sciences; scholarships, grants, and stipends are always there to support bright students. Second, people have been doing sophisticated derivatives for a very long time; most people have no idea what an option is, much less how to price one, and that dates back to the days of Ed Thorpe. Third, I really just cannot believe that having a system where idiots manage money with the help of other idiots is less prone to disaster than idiots managing money with the help of smart guys. The one thing that the author does have right is that the financial incentives are out of whack. That comes back to the deregulation issue which I consider the cause. As for myself, I am also doing a startup and a couple research projects in my spare time, as well as going back to get my PhD starting 2011, so I guess Warren can sleep a little better knowing I'm not going to be "wasting" my life forever. ;)